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These folks seem jolly enough given
the subject manner.
One has to enjoy Gallows humor to appreciate
Nuclear War.
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Back in 1972 at the first Origins
convention there were 13 events.
Nuclear War was one of
them. A classic returns.
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War Without Victory ...
The
Nuclear War tournament was noteworthy for its comings
and goings this year. The game works best with six players at
a table. We started with 18 players and exactly three tables.
I planned on playing four rounds - all players play all rounds
with points awarded for each round. (Thus a player can miss early
rounds and join in late without any advantage - he has missed
the opportunity to gain points in the early rounds.) One more
player appeared during the first round, and I figured I'd have
to have one table of seven, but after the round was over, one
player decided he needed to be somewhere else, and left. So we
still had 18. Then during the second round another player came,
but again after the round, someone said he wanted to go play
in another tournament, so we still had 18. And during the third
round TWO more people appeared, and exactly two people decided
to leave before the fourth round. So we had 18 in each round
the hard way proving once again the folly of plans of mice and
men.
There were more beginners in this tournament than I think
I've ever seen in a Nuclear War tournament before. One
of those beginners, Manuel, eliminated his entire table (including
himself) in the first round by hitting "triple yield"
with a 100-megaton bomb! As a matter of fact, two of the three
tables in the first round ended with no winner.
During the first three rounds, Mike Lam eliminated three other
players peacefully (i.e. with propaganda) - only to be eliminated
in the fourth round the same way. What comes around, goes around.
During the final round, Bill Peeck fired a polaris missile
with a ten megaton warhead at another player. The victim had
an anti missile that would stop it, or a bigger missile, and
he didn't want to waste it when he might need that anti-missile
later during final retaliation. After all, the maximum it could
kill was 12 million, and that was very unlikely. The average
killed with a 10-megaton bomb is about three million. Bill spun
the "plus ten" for twelve million dead. Shortly after
that, Bill had another 10-megaton bomb and the very same thing
happened. As a matter of fact, he did that four times in a row,
and the victim never did get to use that anti-missile he had
been saving!
Rick will not be able to attend WBC next year due to the Gen
Con conflict so if this event is to return it will need both
member support in the December vote and a new GM.
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